Hitting The Panic Button At O'hare

August 31, 1999

There are many benefits to being the nation's foremost transportation hub, but one drawback is that, when Chicago stubs its toe, the nation yelps in pain.

Don't expect anyone in authority to admit it, but last Thursday afternoon Chicago stubbed its toe at O'Hare International Airport. It happened because managers at the United Airlines terminal made a snap decision--albeit a safe and defensible one--to play an incident strictly by the book.

Only this time the book yielded a very wrong answer, which means it's time for a rewrite.

It all started when a still-unidentified man with a carrying case bolted up a restricted stairwell leading from an unsecured baggage claim area to the secured departure gate area. He disappeared into the crowd despite being challenged by a security guard stationed nearby to prevent such transgressions.

Advised of the incident, United terminal managers huddled with on-site city and federal aviation officials. After a hastily-organized search failed to find the mystery man, a decision was made to follow "standard procedure" and evacuate the gigantic terminal.

Chaos hardly describes what happened next as 6,000 passengers, including babes-in-arms and frail elderly, were herded outside onto the roadway where they stood in the sun for two hours while security personnel conducted a more thorough sweep. Meantime, more than 130 flights were canceled stranding 27,000 passengers across United's national route map.

Sure, it was a tough call. And there's no dismissing the inevitable question: What if that briefcase had a bomb? But at some point, cooler heads and more flexible rules should have prevailed.

There was, after all, no clear or convincing indication that the mystery man was bent on harming anyone. There was a "security breach," it's true, but that breach could easily have been motivated by frustration (airline rage?) stupidity or boorishness (the latter being an epidemic of our times.) It could be the fellow bolted because he was an undocumented alien or in possession of contraband--illegalities, to be sure, but not worth seriously inconveniencing 27,000 people.

Besides, if that checkpoint was so sensitive, why wasn't it covered by a security camera in addition to a marginally trained and paid rent-a-cop with orders to report, but not chase, violators?

It's time to review those federal/city/United Airlines security manuals and raise the threshold of perceived danger required before someone hits the panic button.